Spanish Stylie Baked Chicken and Rice

I can’t believe I’ve been blogging for nearly a year and a half and this firm family favourite of weekend dinners has thus far failed to make an appearance. It’s a recipe I originally stole from my Mum, who stole from Delia, that’s chopped and changed dramatically over the years and probably bares little resemblance to it’s original form. Changed to make it quicker, easier and more suitable family fodder, and it never disappoints my lot. It’s a cheap and frugal dish (the one pot usually stretching to at least two dinners), flavoursome (think smoked paprika, chorizo, orange, olives), wholesome (brown rice and a barrage of veggies), hearty and substantial. And can handily be partly or wholly made in advance. Perfect for a weekend lunch or dinner and the tasty leftovers re-heated for a quickie dinner in the week, or even eaten cold for lunch. And my kids LOVE it, Jacques devours it. But then they are fiends for anything rice these days. If your monsters are veggie adverse like mine it’s a handy dish to hide a multitude of the good stuff, just chop them unidentifiably small!.

Chop and change your veggies as to what’s in season. In this particular recipe I used red pepper (the only veggie I would highly recommend you always add) chopped pumpkin (as we still have an inordinate amount to get through!), celery, carrots and french green beans from the freezer. Courgettes, peas, squash, sweet potato, broccoli or mushrooms all work equally as well, just mix and match as to what’s seasonal and you have in.

Special Equipment: A large lidded ovenproof casserole or Le Creuset style dish that can go on a hob

* Please feel free to vary your veggies as to what’s in season or you have in

Pre-heat your oven to 180ºC/Gas Mark 4.

Heat the oil in your casserole or Le Creuset on a medium to high heat. Once hot fry off the chicken pieces until golden on all sides. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Turn down the heat and add the onion, garlic, celery and carrots, there should be plenty of residual fat from the chicken, but if not add a splash more olive oil. Saute for 5 minutes before adding the pumpkin and peppers. Cook for a further 5 minutes.

Now throw in the green beans and chorizo and cook for a further few minutes until the chorizo is oozing it’s lovely juices. Stir in the hot smoked paprika and cook for a moment or two before stirring in the rice. Ensure all the grains are coated in the oily spicy loveliness before pouring in the white wine, chicken stock, chopped tomatoes, bay leaves, thyme and a generous pinch or two of black pepper. Give everything a thorough stir and bring to a gentle simmer.

Take the pot off the heat and place the set aside chicken pieces on the top, pressing them down into the rice. Slot the orange segments where ever there’s space and scatter over the olives. Place the lid on the pot and slide into the oven.

Bake for 45 minutes. The rice and veggies should all be perfectly tender. Eat and enjoy!.

Oh my, what a hearty dish! And I love how it all goes into one big pot to cook together – that’s my idea of easy! There’s so much to love about this meal with all the different flavors and textures – I’m not surprised your family loves it… Thanks so much for sharing!

Oooh yeah – love the sound of this! And even more so because it’s one of your family favourites so properly tried and tested over a few generations too. Got to be good. It’s funny isn’t it, that the dishes we cook time and time again seem to take the longest to appear on the blog. It’s got me thinking about all our regulars that haven’t appeared on mine yet. Might have to do something about that!

Unbelievably there’s still a few more favourites I haven’t got around to blogging. I’m sure it’s because I’ve made them that many times I can’t help but think of them as a little boring! Though probably not to anyone outside Chez Foti.

Each and every time I cook with chorizo I can’t help but wonder how much tastier your homemade chorizo must be, and more importantly what better and traceable ingredients it must contain. Bad case of homemade chorizo envy I’m afraid!

What a great family one pot dish. I have finally converted all my children into loving rice as much as I do. It took years of persuasion but now we are there, I will be trying out variations on the theme and this will be one of them!

What colourful and nutritiious dish which I’m sure probably tastes even better the following day as the flavours can really marinate together. Thank you for entering Credit Crunch Munch with your fabulous Delia derivative:-)